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Single Idea 4165

[filed under theme 11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 4. The Cogito ]

Full Idea

By taking Cogito Ergo Sum as the only certainty, and by his provisionally regarding the existence of the world as problematical, the essential starting point of all philosophy was found, and its true focus in the subjective, the individual consciousness.

Clarification

The 'Cogito' is Descartes' famous "I think therefore I am"

Gist of Idea

Descartes found the true beginning of philosophy with the Cogito, in the consciousness of the individual

Source

Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819], I Supp)

Book Ref

Schopenhauer,Arthur: 'The World as Will and Idea', ed/tr. Berman,Jill and David [Everyman 1995], p.12

A Reaction

Some people think this was a disaster, not a triumph. Descartes could have doubted himself and accepted the world as his starting point.

The 30 ideas with the same theme [Descartes' claim that his own existence is self-evidently and necessary]:

451 Thinking implies existence, because thinking depends on it [Parmenides]
2573 To perceive or think is to be conscious of our existence [Aristotle]
3912 I must exist in order to be mistaken, so that even if I am mistaken, I can't be wrong about my own existence [Augustine]
3622 The Cogito is not a syllogism but a self-evident intuition [Descartes]
24020 We all see intuitively that we exist, where intuition is attentive, clear and distinct rational understanding [Descartes]
24031 When Socrates doubts, he know he doubts, and that truth is possible [Descartes]
3607 In thinking everything else false, my own existence remains totally certain [Descartes]
6929 Modern philosophy set the self-conscious ego in place of God [Descartes, by Feuerbach]
3849 "I think therefore I am" is the absolute truth of consciousness [Sartre on Descartes]
2258 I must even exist if I am being deceived by something [Descartes]
2259 "I am, I exist" is necessarily true every time I utter it or conceive it in my mind [Descartes]
3160 The Cogito is a transcendental argument, not a piece of a priori knowledge [Rey on Descartes]
2260 If I don't think, there is no reason to think that I exist [Descartes]
6914 Descartes transformed 'God is thinkable, so he exists' into 'I think, so I exist' [Descartes, by Feuerbach]
4641 In the Meditations version of the Cogito he says "I am; I exist", which avoids presenting it as an argument [Descartes, by Baggini /Fosl]
3658 Total doubt can't include your existence while doubting [Descartes]
5005 I think, therefore I am, because for a thinking thing to not exist is a contradiction [Descartes]
5006 'Thought' is all our conscious awareness, including feeling as well as understanding [Descartes]
12564 I am as certain of the thing doubting, as I am of the doubt [Locke]
12905 I cannot think my non-existence, nor exist without being myself [Leibniz]
23659 If someone denies that he is thinking when he is conscious of it, we can only laugh [Reid]
15636 The Cogito is at the very centre of the entire concern of modern philosophy [Hegel]
15611 I develop philosophical science from the simplest appearance of immediate consciousness [Hegel, by Hegel]
4165 Descartes found the true beginning of philosophy with the Cogito, in the consciousness of the individual [Schopenhauer]
21220 The physical given, unlike the mental given, could be non-existing [Husserl]
5359 Descartes showed that subjective things are the most certain [Russell]
21862 Consciousness is based on 'I can', not on 'I think' [Merleau-Ponty]
3828 Thinking must involve a self, not just an "it" [Searle]
8221 We cannot judge the Cogito. Must we begin? Must we start from certainty? Can 'I' relate to thought? [Deleuze/Guattari]
3881 In the Cogito argument consciousness develops into self-consciousness [Scruton]